2024-10-15 18:30:00
Javier Milei’s government is doing everything possible to involve the Argentina in the war in Ukraine. With its alignment with the United States and the United Kingdom, it not only aims for the country’s membership in NATO, but also aims to be one of the leading countries suppliers of gunpowder for the manufacture of ammunition.
The Argentine government has already taken two significant steps to position itself in this role as a producer and exporter of gunpowder.
On the one hand, on June 24, the Argentine Defense Minister, Luis Petri, signed a memorandum with his counterpart from the Czech Republic, Jana Černochová, to maintain closer collaboration in the military-technical field between the two nations.
The deal would have gone unnoticed if it hadn’t been known that through the Called the “Czech Initiative,” NATO aims to obtain ammunition and projectiles anywhere in the world by diplomatic efforts led by Pitr Fiala’s government, to later be used in Ukraine’s attack on Russia.
The second step took place at the local level and is directly linked to the neoliberal restructuring of the government. The horizon is the reconversion of an emblematic state national defense company such as Fabricaciones Militares, to operate as a joint-stock company and, in this way, direct its production abroad, now according to commercial criteria.
In recent months, the various headquarters of the Military Fabrications have received emissaries from arms companies interested in privatization, such as the Spanish Hispania Grou, and from the United States, which also sent a representation from the State Department.
Until now, The person most likely to acquire military manufacturing is the “Czechoslovak Group” (Czechoslovakian Group-SCG), one of the main suppliers of ammunition to the Ukrainian armies.. And of course, one of the most important beneficiaries of the “Czech Initiative” promoted by NATO governments.
The company was created by the Czech Jaroslav Strnad, who in the 1990s dedicated himself to the purchase of Soviet-era military scrap destined for scrapping. He subsequently established a small family business for its renovation and subsequent sale to new buyers.
In 2013, Michal Strnad, Jaroslav’s son, took over the company, transforming it into one of the main European multinationals dedicated to the defense industry.
Rapid growth accelerated in 2022, following the Russian intervention in Ukraine, as the company was able to supply refurbished Soviet-era tanks and new equipment, rapidly increasing projectile production.
Core earnings more than doubled in 2023 to €439 million. Meanwhile, CSG saw strong demand for heavy military equipment and large-caliber ammunition as countries increased their defense spending amid the war in Ukraine.
Annual cartridge production has increased tenfold to more than half a million tank and ballistic shells, a significant portion of Europe’s current capacity. At 31, Michal Strnad is the youngest entrepreneur in the global defense industry, with a personal fortune valued at almost $4 billion.
The company is currently booming: it exports to more than 50 countries (many of them in NATO) and has artillery orders for the next six years, for which it is developing new production facilities in Slovakia, Spain and Serbia.
CSG’s main bet these days is to monopolize the Western ammunition market through the purchase for almost 2 billion dollars of the main American company, Vista Outdoor, owner of the well-known Remington gun brand.
Always having Ukraine as the base for its global expansion policy, the new markets that the CSG aims to penetrate are an indicator of those places where new armed conflicts could erupt in the coming years: Asia, Africa and the Middle East. However, the main “bottleneck” for SCG, as for other ammunition manufacturers, is the acquisition of its main components: gunpowder and nitrocellulose.
The Argentine government assumes this with the privatization and internationalization of military production Not only will he have a profitable business, but he will also do his personal part to defeat Russia militarily.
What he will certainly not evaluate will be the losses in every sense that an international alignment of these characteristics entails, much less the abandonment of neutrality and direct involvement in a war encouraged by large arms producers and traffickers, and in which the vast majority of the Argentines do not wish to participate.
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